GEARS Initiative Zambia feels there is sponsored or organised statistical chaos ahead of the 2021 elections.
The organisation has questioned the long silence of the Zambia Statistics Agency (ZamStats) on the misguided statistics of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), insofar as eligible voters for the August 2021 elections.
The ECZ projected nine million eligible voters.
However, at a media briefing on Sunday, ZamStats interim statistician general Mulenga Musepa said there are 8,414,839 eligible voters for next year’s general elections.
He asserted that any statistics issued by persons or organisation, other than the ZamStats, were not official and had no legal basis.
Until Sunday, the ZamStats had been tightlipped on electoral matters.
From November 9 to December 12 this year, the ECZ has been working towards meeting its nine million target of registered voters.
Governance, Elections, Advocacy, Research Services (GEARS) Initiative Zambia executive director McDonald Chipenzi, in a statement, wondered where the ZamStats was, when the ECZ was “misinforming” the nation with regards the statistics of nine million eligible voters in Zambia for next year’s polls.
He asked how the ZamStats could only publicly rebuke the ECZ towards the end of the voter registration exercise.
The ECZ is today expected to announce a voter registration extension, which will start tomorrow.
Chipenzi asked; “what is the motive for parrying ECZ projection towards the close of the exercise?”
“Is it to trigger and justify a shorter extension period from the ECZ or to save ECZ from citizens’ expectations of it meeting the nine million target of eligible voters?” he asked. “Even when it came to the issuance of NRCs (national registration cards), the same confusion characterised the exercise with varying figures.”
Chipenzi noted that the projection for NRCs from the Ministry of Home Affairs, in provinces and at national levels, were different from the actuals, after the exercise ended.
He cited Luapula Province whose initial NRCs projection stood at 100,000, but ended up recording 181,000.
Chipenzi further said Northern Province was projected at 110,000, but recorded 171,000.
The national projection for the NRCs was 1.5 million.
“However, the actual issued NRCs [at national level] came to 1,592,974, above by 92,974 cards and the exercise is still ongoing – which may see the number of cards issued to over two million,” he stated. “With such inaccurate projections already flying in our faces, how trusted would these figures coming from these government institutions and ministries be? We feel this is sponsored or organised statistical chaos ahead of the elections.”
Chipenzi cautioned that what was happening was dangerous for the country – for better planning and for the electoral process, which thrives on trusted and authentic data/figures for its credibility.
Chipenzi stated that it was for that reason the national census of population and housing should not have been postponed to 2021.
He underscored that a national census was a sufficient necessity before a major election.
“We shudder to wonder what would then happen if the census next year would give the nation 10 million eligible voters from the estimated 8.4 million by ZamStats,” he stated.
He noted that Zambia could do better, unlike: “this matokoso (mess) we are being fed with.”
“This is pure organised mis-coordination by government institutions and this disorganisation is meant to cause organised and sponsored confusion in the electoral process,” stated Chipenzi.